THE M A R K C R E A S E R LETTER

My guess is that when it comes to mastermind, I’ve got as much experience as anybody else in the country right now.

I’ve certainly sold more places on Mastermind than anybody else.

I was in Dan Kennedy’s Titanium Mastermind a few years back, alongside marketers like Perry Marshall, Rich Schefren, Mike Crow, and Ron LeGrand.

At around the same time, I wrote a sales letter that created the first mastermind group at the Entrepreneurs Circle. As well as being responsible for sales, I was in the mastermind group as the marketing expert.

I was in every group to begin with, but mastermind grew over the years, so you only got me if you were in one of the ‘premium’ groups paying up to £16,000 a year, more if you wanted to pay in instalments.

As well as those national Entrepreneurs Circle groups, I’ve been part of a number of other masterminds in places like Farnborough, Northampton and York.

Within Entrepreneurs Circle I built mastermind up from a single group five years ago, into seven-groups, successfully producing over £500k in highly profitable revenues last year, before I stepped down as Managing Director.

The core sales letter I wrote over 5 years ago, has been responsible for well over

£1 MILLION in mastermind sales.

I was commissioned last year to re-write the sales material for another UK mastermind, run by someone who I rate as an extremely strong marketer and a decent copywriter.

Fact is, he knew I could do it better.

I’m not telling you any of this to brag, just to demonstrate how neatly positioned I am to tell you why most mastermind groups aren’t as effective as they should be, and what you need to know to choose the right mastermind group for you...

The 7 “insider” keys to choosing your

perfect mastermind

Key #1 - Group SizeChoosing a mastermind group isn’t like selecting a football team. In football, managers are limited to 11 players, but that isn’t the case in Mastermind, and that makes group size a significant factor when it comes to choosing your perfect group.

“The Master Mind may be defined as: coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.”

Napoleon Hill, “Think And Grow Rich”

Why Most Mastermind Groups Don’t Work

Las Vegas,February 14th, 2016

© Mark Creaser, all rights reserved.

Over the last few years, I’ve had a LOT of experience in and around mastermind groups. I know a lot of people who are IN a mastermind group and I know plenty of people who have launched - or tried to launch - their own mastermind group...

Continued over page...

I guess a couple of people could constitute a mastermind group, they could hold each other accountable, but they’re not going to have as much experience and expertise as a larger group, and it’s that capacity to brainstorm effectively that is the hallmark of a good quality mastermind group.

The bigger the group, the more ideas there will probably be kicking around, but the Law of Diminishing Returns will kick in at some point, so you’ll feel the benefit if you’ve got half a dozen people working on something, and it’ll be a different ball game again with 15 or 16, but beyond that, are you really going to feel the benefit?

And although it’s certainly true that you’ll learn as much (if not more) working on other people’s businesses than on your own, sometimes you’ve got a specific problem or opportunity that you’ll want the group to work on, and the bigger the group, the less time you’re likely to have to focus on you.

Experience tells me that 9 businesses is the absolute maximum that you’ll want to fit into a single day of masterminding, and the ninth session won’t be approached with the same energy and drive as the first one.

Key #2 - Single Day vs Multi DayOf course, you can solve the issue of having lots of people in your mastermind group by meeting for multiple days.

27 hotseats over a three-day meeting, anyone?

Probably not. One or two day meetings are really the only options here. My preference is for a two-day meeting, because I find that there’s less of a sense of time slipping away, and it means that the group is able to have dinner together (and maybe a couple of drinks) on the middle evening.

Dan Kennedy’s Titanium group was two day meetings when I was in it, and he’d invite a guest speaker to talk to the group, or dig out an old film that he thought we’d find valuable.It’s a format that worked well.

Key #3 - Frequency of Meetings The number and frequency of meetings is usually related to whether the group’s

meetings are one or two days.

In my experience, the higher the quality of the group, the bigger its “catchment area”. If the calibre of the group is very high, then people will travel a lot further to be part of it, and that increased travel time usually leads to fewer, longer meetings.

So a low quality, local or regional group might meet bi-monthly (or even monthly) for one day, and most people will be travelling for less than an hour or so to get to the venue.

A top quality group might only meet 3 or 4 times a year, but for proper, full-on 2-day sessions each time. People will be happily travelling for 4+ hours to get to the meeting, sometimes internationally.

In Kennedy’s group, I wasn’t the only person flying internationally to get there, which for me meant flying in the night before the meeting, and leaving directly after the second day had been wrapped up.

Dan held his meetings near his home in Cleveland, so there were no direct flights, which invariably meant flying into New York, and then straight back out again.

We had 3 meetings a year in that group, probably driven by the knowledge that each meeting was costing everyone around the table thousands of dollars in cash, and a couple of days of their time, and the introduction of an additional meeting would have made the group harder to sell.

I don’t think that 3 meetings is enough.

4 is perfect, unless you’re so flaky and poor at implementation that you need someone to hold your hand every month and make sure that you’ve actually done something.

The higher the calibre of the group, the busier everyone is. When you’ve got a room full of business owners, finding a date for a meeting - even if it’s 9 months away - can be an impossible task.

The more often a mastermind group meets, the higher the chance that you’ll be missing people from around the table, and that’s not good.

It’s annoying for them, and it’s frustrating for you.

It means that your brainstorm won’t be as effective, and whoever isn’t there will need to play catchup at the next meeting because they won’t know what was talked about, and that’s a waste of valuable time around the table.

Key #4 - Paid vs Peer-to-PeerA load of Peer-to-Peer masterminds have sprung up in the last couple of years, but I wouldn’t want to be part of one. I want people

© Mark Creaser, all rights reserved.

around my mastermind table who know how to make money, who aren’t going to scared off by a £20,000 price-tag on a mastermind seat, because they know they’ll get positive ROI on their investment.

I don’t want to be sitting around the table with scarcity minded people. People who think that by saving a couple of quid on a mastermind is a smart idea.

When you’re choosing a mastermind group, you want everyone (including you) to be 100% committed to the group. When everybody’s got skin in the game they’re much more likely to show up with their “A game”.

One of the added bonuses of mastermind is often the relationships that you’ll make from being part of the group. I think that the people attracted to paid-for and peer-to-peer masterminds are very different, so remember to take that into account.

Key #5 - Who’s In The Group?The other people in your mastermind group matter hugely.

You don’t want to be the smartest person in the room, otherwise you’ll feel like you’re endlessly giving value away and getting little in return.

Other than looking for evidence of intelligence and success, there are a couple of other things to consider when you’re looking at the makeup of a prospective mastermind group.

Business Type - a group full of one-man-band consultants isn’t going to be able to offer you much usueful experience with your staffing issues.

Business Size - getting to £10m is a very different challenge to getting to £1m.

Market - you might not want any direct competitors in the group, but you also won’t want people who can’t relate to your market or business.

Ideally, you want to find yourself in a group of fairly equal peers, with similar levels of experience and complementary expertise, not just a mish-mash of business owners.

Key #6 - The RingmasterThe truth is that the more successful you are, the more difficult it is to find a group of your peers.

If you’re already running a successful business that’s generating a six or seven figure income for you, then it makes perfect sense to invest in a mastermind group that gives you access to high-level, proven experience and expertise.

When you’re choosing a paid-for mastermind, consider carefully who you’re paying your money to and what their motivation is for running the group.

• The ideal person is likely to have mastermind experience in spades, so they actively manage the meetings and draw the best out of everyone around the table.

• They’ll be able to introduce you to people, or give you access to valuable resources that will help you acheive your goals.

• They might be able to open doors that you cannot, either through relationship or reputation.

Key #7 - Past Results

If a mastermind that you’re considering joining has been running for a while, then chances are you’ll be able to read (or watch) some of the success stories from that group, as well as see some testimonials, and maybe even speak to someone who’s already in the group who’ll be able to give you the lowdown.

Find out whether the group is one that knuckles down and makes things happen or whether it’s one that’s a bit more of a social/networking group.

The most important stat to find out is the renewal rate.

Most paid-for masterminds ask for a 12 month committment, at which point people can leave the group if they choose to. Try to find out how many renewed from last year if you can.

Anything less than 70% and I’d be concerned.

© Mark Creaser, all rights reserved.

Choosing a mastermind is like reading a cocktail menu. The best group for you might have completely different ingredients to the right group for the guy next to you.

I’m launching a mastermind next month, and if you don’t want to miss the sales letter email mark@markcreaser.com and I’ll make sure you’re on the list...

Gaining Power Through The "Master Mind"The "Master Mind" may be defined as: "coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.

Economic advantages may be created by any person who surrounds himself with the advice, counsel, and personal cooperation of a group of men who are willing to lend him wholehearted aid, in a spirit of PERFECT HARMONY.

This form of cooperative alliance has been the basis of nearly every great fortune. Your understanding of this great truth may definitely determine your financial statue.

"No two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third,

invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind"

The Master Mind principle, or rather the economic feature of it, was first called to my attention by Andrew Carnegie, over twenty-five years ago. Discovery of this principle was responsible for the choice of my life's work.

Mr. Carnegie's Master Mind group consisted of a staff of approximately fifty men, with whom he surrounded himself, for the DEFINITE PURPOSE of manufacturing and marketing steel. He attributed his entire fortune to the POWER he accumulated through this "Master Mind".

Analyze the record of any man who has accumulated a great fortune, and many of those who have accumulated modest fortunes, and you will find that they have either consciously, or unconsciously employed the "Master Mind" principle.

Extract from Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” [1938]